World’s largest music retailer ditches DRM, not censorship

Wal-Mart's music store goes DRM-free with MP3 tracks from EMI and Universal, …

Like a frog slowly turning into a princess, Wal-Mart's music download store has grown far more attractive now that it offers 256kbps unrestricted MP3 tracks from both EMI and Universal. It won't win over fans who like the other features of iTunes, but it can finally compete with Apple's media store for at least the value segment of the music download market.

DRM isn't yet dead in the music business, but it has a nasty, hacking cough. Wal-Mart is the latest company to ditch the DRM in an attempt to crack the coveted iPod market, which for years has been out of reach. The company announced this morning that it has embraced high-bitrate MP3s from Universal and EMI (iTunes only has DRM-free files from EMI, not from Universal), and it promises to continually expand its offerings.

Wal-Mart has actually run a download store for years, selling DRM-encumbered WMA files at $0.88 a pop. They couldn't play on either the iPod or the Zune, but at least they were cheap!

Now that the DRM shackles are loosening, Wal-Mart can offer a store with at least a chance of attracting customers. As a sign of how badly Wal-Mart want to attract iPod users, the music store doesn't list tracks as being DRM-free but as being ready to "play on the iPod."

Because neither Warner nor Sony BMG are yet licensing their catalogs without DRM, many of the tracks at the store are still DRM-encumbered WMA files—it's a confusing situation and a huge drawback if the company wants iPod users to shop there. Most users don't think in terms of what record label their favorite artists appear on, so finding music for download can be a hit-and-miss affair. Still, there's not much that Wal-Mart can do except try to compete on price with its current selection of tracks and stress the fact that it has MP3s from Universal as well.

And pricing is competitive. The 256kbps MP3 tracks are available for 94¢ apiece, which compares well with iTunes' $1.29 for 256kbps AAC files (though AAC is a more modern compression scheme). Wal-Mart's store can be accessed either through the browser or through Windows Media Player (version 9 and later); oddly, the browser-based store cannot be accessed when using Linux or Mac.

In a statement sent to Ars, Maura Corbett of the Digital Freedom Campaign praised the move. "Wal-Mart has become the world's largest retailer by putting their customers first and offering the products they want; today they took that philosophy digital," she said.

Common is commonly edited

It's a bit hard to believe that all the customers who shop at the world's largest retailer want censored versions of music, though, but that's what they get. Only edited versions of albums with parental advisories are available, just as they are in Wal-Mart's offline stores. This isn't a new policy; Wal-Mart's online music store has carried only edited versions for years, but it's worth pointing out to potential new users tempted by the lower prices and lack of DRM.

The policy is in contrast to iTunes, which offers both versions for sale and allows users to choose which version they wish to purchase. Wal-Mart has already made the decision for you, though, as part of its corporate policy, and it hits hard in the rap section of the site: six of the top ten rap and hip-hop albums have been edited.

Despite its best efforts, though, Wal-Mart warns users that "the use of the Edited notice does not necessarily mean that all content that all listeners might find objectionable has been removed from the recording." We'll have to wait and see whether the company's practice of selling only edited music will hamper its online efforts.

Universal thinks outside the gBox

DRM-free is the new black, apparently, and everyone is wearing it. Universal, which is snubbing Apple with its own restricted tracks, has instead agreed to an interesting marketing plan with new music site gBox. TechCrunch has a nice writeup of the deal, which will see Universal purchasing Google AdWords for its artists. Those AdWords ads will then point to gBox.

Rather than encouraging people to buy music for themselves, gBox hopes to popularize the idea of buying tracks and whole albums as gifts for friends. People create wish lists at the site, friends purchase tracks from those wish lists, and the list creator can then log in and download the tracks. Sounds like a neat idea, as most current stores make it difficult to buy digital content for others. Again, although it's browser-based, gBox only works on Windows due to a download plugin it uses.

We haven't yet entered the DRM-free paradise, but at least it's visible atop a distant hill. Hopefully, it's caused by something in the Perrier that all these executives are drinking and will soon spread to the movie business, which would do well to stop crippling movie download services with DRM and preventing burns to DVD. Removing AACS and its invasive demands on hardware and PC makers would also be great, but we'll keep that one in the "Winged Pigs" file for now.

After years of widespread piracy and thousands of deeply unpopular lawsuits, the music business is at least considering the idea that since they aren't going to thwart determined pirates, they might as well make it easy and cheap for consumers to make legal purchases. Hassling those who want to give you their money was never a solid business strategy, and the faster it fades away, the better.